


You Know I Saw a City Burning

by HallsofStone2941



Series: Crazy Life [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Assault, Attempted Murder, Canonical Character Death, Dwalin's POV, Implied/Referenced Suicide, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, It's only major character death if you consider some of them main characters, Minor Canonical Character(s), Minor Character Death, Multi, Murder, Not Beta Read, Paranoia, Referenced Mental Illness, kid!Dwalin - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-07 09:56:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1894740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HallsofStone2941/pseuds/HallsofStone2941
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some people grow up at a very young age. Others never really grow up at all.</p>
<p>Dwalin became an adult at the age of twelve; the same year that Arkenstone fell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Know I Saw a City Burning

**Author's Note:**

> This whole universe was supposed to be in England, then I wrote this oneshot and realized I know nothing about England's economy (hell, I barely understand America's economy). I don't think England has stock, though, so I had to move the location.

Thorin Durin, seventeen, tall, charming, and well on his way to becoming the head of Arkenstone Jewelers, is a god in the eyes of twelve-year-old Dwalin, who sees his older cousin on the same level as movie stars and world leaders. As heir to the Jewelers' throne, both family members and the public eye (when it has turned to Arkenstone) have always expected great things from him; and he has lived up to their expectations. Thorin has fantastic grades in school, a great eye for fine detail (essential in a jewelry business), and a talent for dealing with people. The pride in his bearing and his adorable-turned-handsome looks make him born for the camera and a place of importance. Everyone loves him.

That the prince of precious stones treats Dwalin with patience and amusement whenever their families visit one another only awes the pre-teen even more. Thorin allows Dwalin to chatter nervously, offering a generous smile at whatever his young cousin says. He is cool in a way that Balin, who spends most of his time keeping Dwalin from having fun, has never been and can never be. During family visits, his studious older brother prefers to seclude himself in a room and read, leaving Thorin to manage Dwalin while Frerin sits with the adults and Dis spends her time on the nearest phone.

Dwalin cherishes his time with Thorin. Not only does the older boy have great advice (about girls, school, and dealing with siblings), but he also rarely seems to have a moment to spare; that he would deem to spend his free time with Dwalin is a huge honor.

The year that Dwalin turns twelve, Thorin is busier than usual, though he still takes some time out for Dwalin. The pre-teen assumes that, as Thorin gets older, he has to become more and more involved in the family business. The family meetings - usually between Fundin, Thrain, and Thror - are longer, louder, and angrier this year. Balin begins joining them, as well, but Frerin is kicked out, leaving the younger cousins to try and get along while their fathers and older brothers discuss business matter.

At one point, that year, family visits become strictly business. Instead of friendly chats over glasses of wine, gatherings convene at either Fundin's or Thrain's house. The meetings also grow in size; now Groin and Nain attend while their wives and children entertain each other.

Thorin now barely glances at Dwalin as they pass each other before and after the meetings start and end, and he is always glowering. Dwalin is hurt - and therefore angry - at the lack of usual affection. He knows that Thorin is not at fault, but something is going on at Arkenstone Jewelers, and he is frustrated that he does not know what.

Though the contents of the discussions are never disclosed, their dark tone permeates the atmosphere long after each family has returned home. Dinner in the Fundin household becomes a solemn affair, with Fundin and Balin often silent and glum while Thala makes stilted attempts at conversation and Dwalin tries to guess, by his father's and older brother's expressions, what is wrong with Arkenstone.

*****

Thala is driving with Dwalin sitting shotgun when her phone rings. She fishes it out of her purse and answers it, greeting the caller with a "hello?"

Dwalin is violently jerked forward when his mother slams on the brakes in the middle of the road. She spins the car around and speeds in the other direction, phone still pressed tightly to her ear. Dwalin recognizes the route to the hospital, and his gut clenches in panic. As soon as Thala is off the phone, she tells him,

"Your father was shot - some mugger from an alleyway. He's alright - the bullets only grazed his shoulder - but he's bleeding heavily." His mother's expression is pinched, and Dwalin gets the distinct impression that she is not telling him something.

When they get to the hospital room where his father is, Fundin Durin is sitting on the bed and facing the door. He has bandages wrapped around his left bicep, and looks a little loopy from whatever drugs they have given him.

Fundin quickly reassures his wife and son that he will  be fine. His voice holds worry and exhaustion, but not shock. It could be the military training, Dwalin thinks, but there is something going on here that he does not quite understand. When Fundin asks Dwalin to wait in the lobby, the pre-teen storms out, barely managing not to slam the door behind him.

Balin is in the lobby, looking pensive. Dwalin grabs him by the arm and drags him into an empty corridor.

"What the hell is going on?" he hisses. Balin blinks, attempting innocence, but Dwalin has been able to read his poker faces for some time.

"Balin," he growls, " _what_ is going on at Arkenstone?"

He is not entirely sure why he asks this question. Maybe it is because Balin was here before Dwalin and their mother. Maybe it is because Balin, despite never having had a friend or family member shot before, does not look shocked in the slightest. Dwalin just _knows_ it has something to do with Arkenstone, something that has been culminating for the past few months, and he will stand in this hallway to the end of time unless Balin tells him the truth.

Balin sighs, looking far older than his fifteen years. "You want to know?" he questions, as if hoping Dwalin will say no. Instead, he nods, crossing his arms as if to protect himself from whatever Balin has to say. His brother sighs again, as if the weight of the whole world is on his shoulders.

And Dwalin learns. He learns about the company going public, as an attempt to fix the damage done by Thror's spending sprees. He learns about stock shares, and Smaug, the man's promise to make Arkenstone his, and various suspicious organizations buying up stock overnight. It's a booming business, Balin says, but it's not ours anymore.

With every word, Dwalin feels his childhood slip away a little more. He realizes the magnitude of their problem, especially given Smaug's brushes with insanity.

"We've done what we can to keep the press unaware," Balin informs him, "but they're a relentless pack of wolves. Eventually - soon - our troubles will be public. Then we'll really be—"

"This wasn't an accident," Dwalin says flatly. "Was it?"

Balin looks at Dwalin, shaking his head. "We don't think so. There's no proof, of course, it's too soon. But the mugger - he didn't demand money, Dwalin, and he was clean-shaven. He just...shot him." Balin's voice finally breaks, and he lowers himself into a chair, putting his face in his hands. Dwalin stands there awkwardly for a moment before sitting next to his brother. He does not offer comfort; he does not really know how. He just found out that a madman is trying to destroy his family's livelihoods - maybe even by taking their lives. They sit there for a long time, until their parents come looking for them. The ride home is utterly silent, the atmosphere laden with the expectation of dangers to come.

The family, and the company, continues as usual. The meetings are still held on a weekly basis, the voices shouting and overlapping as they try to save their sinking ship. Two things change: one, everyone is tensed, waiting for another attack, and two, Balin shares notes with Dwalin in the secrecy of his room after every meeting. He know that Smaug is winning, that changes - dangerous, threatening changes - are being made to the company's integral structure, that with a few careful rule twists, the co-founders could be written out of all decision-making and profits. He knows that the press has finally gained access to the story, and that Thrain and Fundin are desperate to get their side of the story in the paper.

He also knows, after one spectacularly explosive meeting which lasted an extra hour, that Dis opted for unprotected sex with her boyfriend, and is now pregnant at the tender age of sixteen. Amongst the turmoil in their lives, this almost seems to be good news, as for the first time in her life, Dis is, apparently, taking something seriously.

"Accidents" come weekly, now, and Fundin trains his sons in the fighting style he learned in the military. Everyone - Groin's family, and Nain's, and, of course, Thrain's - has had near-death experiences, minor or major injuries that, by some rare strokes of luck, never become the literal nails in the coffins they are probably meant to be. The business is suffering, though; customers, suppliers, and investors alike are becoming wary of affiliating themselves with Arkenstone Jewelers. Stock share prices drop, the company tipping towards bankruptcy as everyone wants to sell and no one wants to buy. Once the pride of Erebor, Arkenstone is now a taboo; the very mention of it resulting in sinister threats and broken windows. By the barest chance, the Durins are still hanging on, still alive.

Frerin dies first.

No one could afford time to pick him up from school. The bus is safe, busy, with people watching everywhere. But somehow, between the bus stop and his home, Frerin found himself surrounded by gang members and left, broken and bloodied, in a dumpster.

Thror is next.

Not a week after Frerin's death, a man, once a trusted business partner of the Durins, walks into his office, pulls out a gun, and shoots the man, point blank, in the head.

The deaths rock the town. The press descends like crows on a battlefield, while the police dive into their investigations and the citizens band together to give the Durin family support, far, far too late. Jumps and scares are hard to identify, and even harder to prove, but there is no misinterpreting two cooling corpses. The perpetrators are found and tried, the jury bearing no sympathy. Problems or no, the Durin family brought fame and prosperity to the sluggish town, and they were beloved.

For the right price, the criminals name their master, to no one's surprise. Within a month, Smaug is taken down, and his influence over the shareholders destroyed. It does not matter, though. Not when Arkenstone is ruined, which was Smaug's plan all along; the jewelry store is closed and boarded over, the employees sent elsewhere, the profit gone. Not when its very core - those who live - disappear, moving miles and miles away as if to escape the whiplash of the terrible fall. Not when Thrain Durin is found hanging by a rope of his own making.

Fundin intends to stay behind, to support Thorin and Dis. But Thorin disappears in the night, leaving no indication of his destination, nor taking any belongings with him. Dis becomes devastated, and the only person able to convince her to take care of herself - and her growing babe - is her boyfriend, who has stayed by her side throughout these terrible events. Eventually they leave, Dis informing her cousins in a defeated voice that she just wants to go - to run as far as she can and forget about Arkenstone, about Erebor, about death, and, most painfully, about Thorin's abandonment. So she leaves with a promise to stay in touch, and no phone number or address to contact her. And, with everyone else gone, Fundin decides to take his family, the last of the Durins in Erebor, and find work, and a new life, elsewhere.

Contact with Nain and Dain, Groin and Gloin and Oin, and the friends and employees of Arkenstone Jewelers stutters and stops, but the pieces of the family endure. For Dwalin, it means a new school, a new house, and a new life. There is no going back for him, no return to innocence and childhood; at the tender age of thirteen, he realizes that the only way now for him is forward. So he takes a lesson or two from the fall of Arkenstone, keeps things close to the chest. He grows up, becomes quiet and gruff, and glares at anyone that gets too close. He stays near to his brother, whom he trusts most. And he gets his first tattoo, with his father's permission, of a mountain with a glowing jewel inside - the Arkenstone logo - to remind him of the year he became an adult.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like this story is a bit rushed, but I didn't know what to add to it to make it better. Oh, well, hope you like it anyway :)
> 
> Soundtrack:  
> I See Fire by Ed Sheeran (and/or cover by Peter Hollens)


End file.
